A cleanroom can be generally defined as a closed sealable space that prevents contaminants from getting in or out. Some cleanrooms are provided so as to keep a workplace substantially free of contaminants, such as dust, airborne microbes, aerosol particles, chemical vapors, etc. These contaminants might otherwise interfere with the precision work undertaken there and/or alter the quality of the products being made. Others cleanrooms are provided to prevent chemical and/or biological contaminants from being released in the surrounding environment. These cleanrooms can often be found in research facilities or the like, but a cleanroom can also be used as a quarantine zone, for example a quarantine zone for living animals. Animal biosecurity is increasingly a concern and many diseases can spread very fast in the air over vast distances, sometimes many kilometers from a source. An example is the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus. This virus is highly infectious and can spread in the air up to 8 kilometers from a source. It has a substantial economic burden on the industry in affected areas. Some are even considering having cleanrooms on trucks for transporting healthy animals across some areas as part of their biosecurity protocols.
The term “cleanroom” refers primarily to the closed sealable space but it also refers the surrounding structural parts required to create it. Generally, a cleanroom minimally includes walls, a ceiling, a floor and anything that is required to access the space therein, for instance a door. A cleanroom often requires using a dedicated air filtering system to prevent the contaminants from leaving or entering, depending on the situation. The interior of the cleanroom is maintained either at a negative pressure relative to the surrounding outside environment when the contaminants are considered to be inside, or either at a positive pressure relative to the surrounding outside environment when the contaminants are considered to be outside.
The size of a cleanroom can vary immensely from one implementation to another. Some cleanrooms can be made very small while others can be large enough to have several persons working simultaneously therein. One approach to simplify the design and the construction of cleanrooms is to use modular panels as basic elements. Cleanrooms of various sizes and configurations are then built using a number of these panels for at least a part of their structure. Modular panels can be used for walls, ceilings and/or floors. They can also lower costs. They are generally attached to an external supporting structure that will hold them in place. The external supporting structure can be structural elements of an existing room or compartment, and/or be a dedicated framework or armature installed together with the panels.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,169,641 to Wickstrom discloses a cleanroom wall panel system. The system includes retainer elements to secure the wall panels. The wall panels are lifted prior to move them into position and then lowered to secure them to the retainer elements. However, this requires a clearance space between the top edge of the wall panels and the ceiling. Once the wall panels are in position, the clearance space must be closed and sealed. This arrangement is also not suitable for ceiling and floor panels.
Although various arrangements have been proposed in the past for creating cleanrooms, the design and the construction of cleanrooms often remain challenging for various reasons. Room for improvements always exists in this technical area.